1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to semiconductor integrated circuits, and more particularly to a chip chassis system for housing a plurality of modules interconnected by a micro-backplane for ease of integration and interchangability.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer systems have traditionally comprised a system unit or housing which encloses a plurality of electrical components comprising the computer system. A computer system typically includes a motherboard which is configured to hold the microprocessor and memory and the one or more busses used in the computer system. The motherboard typically comprises a plurality of computer chips or electrical components including intelligent peripheral devices, bus controllers, processors, bus bridges, etc.
More recently, computer systems are evolving toward an integration of functions into a handful of computer chips. This coincides with the ability of chip makers to place an increasingly large number of transistors on a single chip. For example, currently chip manufacturers are able to place up to ten million transistors on a single integrated circuit or monolithic substrate. It is anticipated that within several years chip makers will be able to place one billion transistors on a single chip. Thus, computer systems are evolving toward comprising a handful of computer chips, where each computer chip comprises a plurality of functions.
Computer systems of different kinds are currently being used in many applications which require portability and/or reduced size, such as laptops, palmtops, PDAs (portable digital assistants) etc., as well as a number of new consumer electronic devices. Modularity of components is also desirable for its lower cost of manufacture and faster speed in replacing of broken parts. Therefore, an improved system is desired for integrating a plurality of integrated circuits in an easily interchangeable fashion.